All posts tagged pornography

U.K. internet users will be required to opt in to receive adult content

If you want an example of the sort of problems that can happen when you try to filter the Internet, look no further than Mediawatch-UK, a body that “campaigns for socially responsible media and against content which is potentially harmful.” In an irony not lost on its director, she recently had to remove a block on its website by mobile network operators.

“Of course we don’t have any pornography on our site,” said Director Vivienne Pattison. “But we do talk about it quite a lot.” That, it appears, was enough.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday that all British homes will be subject to web filtering of legal pornographic content unless they explicitly opt out. This, Mr. Cameron said, is to “protect the innocence of our children.” In the same speech, Mr. Cameron also announced new measures to limit access to child-abuse images, as well as seeking to ban “extreme pornography” depicting rape and violence.

Pornography will not be blocked automatically from British internet subscribers, the U.K. government has decided. There had been calls for a system whereby Internet service providers would have had to put filters on all connections unless subscribers contacted them and asked for them to be switched off.

The Home Office and the Department of Education in a joint report, however, said that a public consultation had revealed little enthusiasm among parents for the idea of automatic filtering by Internet service providers (ISPs), according to The Independent.

The U.K. is in the midst of a heated debate as to how best to prevent children being exposed to pornography online. There is considerable support in the government and elsewhere for an opt-in filtering system run by fixed-line ISPs.

The mobile networks already provide adult content filters. Anti-censorship organization, the Open Rights Group, and the London School of Economics Media Policy Project have been looking at how well these filters work.

As would be expected when dealing with pornography, for which there is no absolute definition, there are problems with sites being blocked that should not be. But, in some cases, taking even the broadest view of adult material it is hard to see why some websites have been singled out, such as the community group in the leafy London suburb of St. Margarets.

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